Schools Master Plan Unveiled

• Different Forces Shape Goals for Malibu and Santa Monica

BY BILL KOENEKER

At a special meeting last week, the board of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and the public got a look at an ambitious 20-year draft master facilities plan valued at $1.2 billion in improvements for the district’s campuses.

The school district has a head start, given that Measure BB approved by the voters last year added $268 million to the district’s coffers for capital improvements.

Consultants from the architectural firm Concordia, Sidewalk Studio and Harley Ellis Devereaux presented an overview of the plans on a site-by-site basis.

The initial plans, two years in the making, are an outgrowth of site visits and various workshops and meetings at which community members had an opportunity to give feedback to the consultants and school officials, according to district staff.

Consultants stressed that the draft is a work in progress and that the elements shown to the board and unveiled last week reflect public input, but the meeting last Wednesday was the first time the public could see the plan in totality.

Also emphasized is that the schematics are concepts and not designs. It is the first time the public has had a chance to review the draft master plan.

The next step, according to consultants, is what is called CEQA review, or subjecting the plan to environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The draft paints a different picture for Malibu and Santa Monica schools with two different driving forces shaping the plan, according to one of the consultants.

In Santa Monica, a boom is projected in the student population requiring increasing facility space to accommodate such growth.

No such increase is forecast for Malibu and, according to estimates, there will be a slight decline in student enrollment in the next two decades.

Consequently, there is enough space in Malibu and program needs will drive the facility plan, rather that population pressures.

Consultants said the numbers show Malibu with currently 324 pupils per site with a projected slide to about 303 per site by 2016.

That is in stark contrast to the more urban areas of Santa Monica where growth in the student population is expected to reach 654 students per site within 20 years.

Phase one plans for Malibu High School and middle school call for the number one priority being a “community serving library.” New two-story classrooms would replace the relocatable classrooms and improved traffic circulation and drop off areas are planned. Other infrastructure improvements are proposed.

The draft phase one plans for Juan Cabrillo, which consultants reiterated is not foreseeing enrollment growth, would be a “mandate for pre-school facilities” and general infrastructure improvements, including bringing classrooms up to district standards and creating dedicated drop-off and pick-up areas.

Likewise, Webster School is not potentially experiencing student growth, but there is a need to replace classrooms with new ones and generally improving the infrastructure, including paving an existing parking lot currently in use. Improvements would also call for replacement of the relocatable classrooms.

The consultants said Point Dume Marine Science School “works very well in many ways,” and that the phase one plans for that site include replacing the heating system and dedicating a new pre-school building.

Plans for Santa Monica High School, which Malibu students can still choose to attend, call for spending $100 million over the next 20 years for new buildings and remodeling, constructing a underground parking structure and other improvements, including trying to shape the facility into a pedestrian friendly campus, according to the consultants.

Planners also talked about the ways that district officials would be tasked with implementing the plan, coming up with more funding (possible bind measures), phasing in new construction, optimizing the use of facilities through joint use agreements and beginning the construction on phase one improvements using Measure BB money.

To view the entire draft master facilities plan, go to www.ourschoolplan.com